Marvel fans have spent years awaiting the arrival of Mephisto into the MCU, but the demon’s story is only beginning. And the same goes for the sons and daughters of Mephisto, who may already be at play in Marvel’s movie universe. With this A-Tier Marvel villain finally revealed, and hints of his role in Avengers: Doomsday, the Mephisto family just became a must-read backstory for MCU viewers.
Blackheart, The Son of Mephisto
First Appearance: Daredevil #270 (May, 1989) by Ann Nocenti, John Romita Jr.
While the most well-known version of Blackheart may have appeared opposite Nicolas Cage in Ghost Rider (2003) played by Wes Bentley, the true demonic origins are far more terrifying. As one would expect, when Mehpisto himself decides to create a son cast in his own image.
Lacking the knack for trickery or deception of his father, Blackheart is more of a blunt instrument, attacking heroes like Daredevil, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Punisher, and more head-on. But his modern story has taken a dramatic twist.
After choosing not to help his father kill the sons of the Scarlet Witch, Mephisto has punished Blackheart with a fully human form, concealing his true power and bloodline. With Spirits of Vengeance to command, and demonic fire to wield in battle, There’s no question Blackheart is an event- or team-up-level Marvel villain.
Mephista, The Daughter of Mephisto
First Appearance: Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #6 (April, 1989) by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Jackson Guice
In the modern comics Mephisto is typically shown operating independently, preferring to manipulate events to his designs from the shadows rather than force them by direct action. But that wasn’t always the case. Back during the 1990s, Mephisto regularly tormented Doctor Strange with help from his demoness offspring, Mephista.
Looking every bit the child of the devil, the winged “dread daughter of Mephisto” nevertheless found herself charmed by Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme. Eventually Mephista leaned into the idea of heroics, taking the name ‘Jezebel,’ and even trading sides to help Marvel’s heroes in their assault upon her father.
Greylight, The Son of Mephisto
First Appearance: Star-Lord (Vol. 2) #6 (April, 2017) by Chip Zdarsky, Djibril Morissette-Phan
Easily the most memorable of all of Mephisto’s offspring, the villain dubbed Greylight was introduced to Marvel canon as anything but. Instead, he was simply an alien gunslinger intimidating an alien settlement, on a frontier world Star-Lord Peter Quill happened to encounter.
Peter would soon learn this was no alien world, but the “Softlands,” a limbo for souls of dead travelers. As the gunhand charged with claiming these spirits by his father, Greylight is clearly deserving of far more than just this one appearance in Marvel canon.
John Priest, The Human Son of Mephisto
First Appearance: New Fantastic Four #1 (June, 2022) by Peter David, Alan Robinson
Unquestionably the ‘odd man out’ of all of Mephisto’s direct offspring, John Priest is also the most recent character to be introduced (just one of several reasons he is uniquely tailored to an MCU adaptation). But for most of his life, John had no reason to think his journey to priesthood had anything to do with demons.
Until he unlocked the uncanny ability to wish for something, and instantly make it come true. After warping Wolverine, the Fantastic Four, and Hulk across America at a thought, Mephisto decided to arrive and explain John’s supernatural skills.
Ironically, John was actually the son of a Catholic nun, conceived with Mephisto in the guise of her own parish priest. Given up for adoption, John had no idea of his parentage, using his abilities to defy Mephisto before leaving the spotlight. For now.
Billy Maximoff, The ‘Soul Son’ of Mephisto
First Appearance: Vision and the Scarlet Witch (Vol. 2) #12 (June, 1986) by Steve Englehart, Richard Howell
Thanks to the MCU’s WandaVision and Agatha All Along the entire world is aware that Wanda Maximoff’s son, Billy, grows up to become the sorcerer Wiccan. But Billy’s full story isn’t quite explained in live action, with the MCU leaving out Mephisto’s role in the creation of him and his brother.
While Vision was certainly ‘father’ to Billy and Tommy in their first incarnation, he was still too artificial a lifeform to create them naturally. To make her dream a reality, Wanda created her twin boys with what she thought were two unclaimed soul fragments, cast away on the spiritual plane.
As she would eventually learn, those fragments were actually pieces of a defeated Mephisto (fractured, but not destroyed). This makes Mephisto the boys’ father, eventually leading him to seek out their souls as an owed debt.
Tommy Maximoff, The Soul Son of Mephisto
First Appearance: Vision and the Scarlet Witch (Vol. 2) #12 (June, 1986) by Steve Englehart, Richard Howell
Thankfully for both Billy and Tommy Maximoff, a.k.a. Speed, Mephisto did not succeed in harvesting the pieces of his soul granting the twins life. That crime was too much for Blackheart to commit for his father, allowing the boys to be saved… in more ways than one.
As explained in the Avengers Academy: Marvel’s Voices series, the Tommy and Billy Maximoff created by Scarlet Witch would eventually travel back in time to be reincarnated in the bodies of Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepard.
The live-action series follows much of this basic outline, explaining how two completely magical/non-real children could become flesh and blood in the real world. But they never would have survived their ‘father’ if not for some unexpected help…
M’Kraan, The Grand-Daughter of Mephisto
First Appearance: Avengers Academy: Marvel’s Voices Infinity Comic #2 (July, 2024) by Anthony Oliveira, Jethro Morales, Carola Borelli
As the strangest entry on this list, without question, this mystical being has roots all the way back to the M’kraan Crystal introduced in X-Men #107 (1977). Originally a mystical cosmic artifact of the Shi’ar Empire, the truth of it was only recently revealed.
Described as something of a keystone, or the foundation of all reality, the M’Kraan Crystal took on human form to protect Billy and Tommy Maximoff from Mephisto. Calling herself simply “M’Kraan” and the boys her “fathers,” the being used time travel to send the boys into the past.
The mystery of the story still looms large (like M’Kraan’s larger purpose), but it was M’Kraan who allowed the boys to be reincarnated as Wiccan and Speed in the first place. As their daughter, that makes her a part of the Mephisto family as well.
